VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook

Table of Contents

VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgments

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Sections

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Conventions 

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Installing VCM

Introduction

Understanding VCM components

The database server

The VCM Collector server

The web server

The managing agent

The SCR Tool

Distributed VCM deployment

Single-tier installation

Two-tier installation

Three-tier installation

Understanding the requirements of VCM

Software requirements

Minimum hardware requirements

Service accounts

VCM databases

OSes supported by VCM

vRealize Configuration Manager port and protocol summary

Licensing

Preparing our VCM deployment - installing SQL

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Preparing our VCM deployment - installing and configuring IIS

Getting ready

How to do it...

Installing IIS

Configuring IIS

Configuring the IIS 7.5 default website

How it works...

Preparing our VCM deployment - configuring SSRS

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Preparing our VCM deployment - installing other prerequisites

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing VCM - single-tier deployment

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing VCM - two-tier deployment

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing VCM - three-tier deployment

Getting ready

How to do it...

Installing web components

Installing Collector server components

How it works...

VCM post-installation tasks - database fine tuning

Getting ready

How to do it...

SQL Server - database settings

SQL Server - maintenance plan

How it works...

2. Configuring VCM to Manage Your Infrastructure

Introduction

Adding a vCenter Server instance

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding a vCloud Director and vShield instance

Getting ready

How to do it...

Adding a vShield instance

Adding a vCloud Director instance

How it works...

Collecting data from managed machines

Getting ready

How to do it...

Collecting data from virtual infrastructures

Collecting data from managed machines

How it works...

There's more...

Adding a discovery rule

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding a network authority account to manage machines in multiple domains

Getting ready

How to do it...

Available Domains

Available Accounts

Assigned Accounts

How it works...

Configuring a managing agent machine for virtual environment management

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing an agent on Windows servers

Getting ready

How to do it...

Manual agent installation

Agent push from the console

Licensing Windows machines

How it works...

There's more...

Installing an agent on Linux servers

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating machine groups

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Dynamic groups

Static groups

3. Linux Patching

Introduction

How Linux patching works

SCR VM requirements

Estimated required SCR storage by platform

SCR VM hardware requirements

List of patch sites for SCR

Installing SCR prerequisites

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Installing the SCR Tool

Getting ready

How to do it...

Installing SCR

Encrypting the password for the content repository

How it works...

Setting up the SCR configuration file

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Scheduling content downloads

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Configuring Apache

Getting ready

How to do it...

Installing Apache

Configuring httpd.conf for Apache

Configuring the .htaccess file

Configuring HTTPS in Apache

How it works...

There's more...

Configuring patching repository options in VCM

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Configuring staging options in VCM

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Configuring the SCR Tool base path for the patching repository

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a patch assessment template

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Deploying patches on Linux machines – on demand

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Deploying patches on Linux machines – scheduled

Getting ready

How to do it...

Step 1 – the initial collection

Step 2 – deploying the patch

Step 3 – final assessment

How it works...

4. Windows Patching

Introduction

Configuring VCM to use Microsoft updates

Getting ready

How to do it...

Configuring a proxy

Downloading settings

The network authority account

Synchronizing patches with Microsoft

How it works...

The download directory

See also

An introduction to automated patching

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating a patch assessment template

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Windows patching – on demand

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Windows patching – scheduled

Getting ready

How to do it...

Initial collection

Initial assessment

Deploying patches

Final assessment

How it works...

There's more...

Patching machines in multi-domain environments and workgroups

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Patching VM templates

How to do it...

How it works

Patching reports

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

5. Software Provisioning for Windows

Introduction

The Windows software repository

Package manager for Windows

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Package Studio

Installing a software repository on Windows

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Deploying additional components on agents

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating software packages

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Publishing software packages to a repository

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding a repository to VCM 

Getting ready

How to do it...

Collecting software provisioning package manager data

Collecting software repository data

How it works...

Adding repository sources to package manager

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Deploying a package

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

6. Compliance Management

Introduction

The constructs of VCM compliance

Rules

Filters

Rule groups

Templates

Importing compliance packs

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating compliance rule groups

Getting ready

How to do it...

Creating a rule group

Creating a filter

How it works...

Creating custom compliance rules for Windows

Machine group compliance

Virtual environment compliance

Getting ready

How to do it...

Copying a rule from another rule group

Creating a new rule

How it works...

Creating custom compliance rules for Linux

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating custom compliance rules for virtualization

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Modifying the default filter set

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating compliance templates

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Checking the compliance of the infrastructure

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Exporting compliance rules

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Compliance reports

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating compliance exceptions

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

7. Maintenance of VCM

Introduction

Upgrading VCM from a previous version – in place

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Aftercare

There's more...

Upgrading VCM from a previous version – parallel

Getting ready

How to do it...

Migrating the VCM certificate

Migrating VCM to the new server

How it works...

Aftercare

There's more...

Migrating VCM from another domain

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Applying a new license key

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Upgrading VCM agents

Getting ready

How to do it...

Windows

Linux

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Changing service account passwords

Getting ready

How to do it...

Collector service accounts

VCM remote service accounts

How it works...

Managing users

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Default roles

There's more...

Decommissioning VMs – manual VM purge

Getting ready

How to do it...

Unlicense a managed machine

Purge the machine

How it works...

There's more...

Decommissioning VMs – scheduled VM record purge

Getting ready

How to do it...

Schedule a job in SQL

How it works...

8. Integration with vROps and Scheduling

Introduction

Installing and configuration of vROps Management Pack for VCM

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works

There's more...

Configuring vROps – VCM compliance mapping and scheduling

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Scheduling OS and compliance data collection

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Scheduling compliance

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Scheduling reports

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Scheduling vCenter collections

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Scheduling vCenter discovery

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

9. Troubleshooting VCM

Introduction

Troubleshooting tools – EcmDebugEventViewer

Getting ready

How to do it...

Accessing events

Filtering events

How it works

Troubleshooting tools – Job Manager | History

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works

Troubleshooting tools – Machine Collection Status

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works

Troubleshooting agent communication issues

Getting ready

Issue 01: Mutual Authentication failed

How to do it...

Issue 02: Rethrown certificate issue

How to do it...

Issue 03: PingFailed

How to do it...

Issue 04: CredentialsFailed

How to do it...

How it works

Troubleshooting agent upgrade issues

Getting ready

How to do it...

Troubleshooting SCR download issues

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works

Troubleshooting VCM console login failure

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works

Troubleshooting vCenter and vCloud data collection issues

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works

Troubleshooting the Recommended Action: Investigate Issue Linux server patch error

Getting ready

How to do it...

Troubleshooting not being able to see any jobs on the console

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works

Troubleshooting not being able to see the Monthly option on the Schedule Job page 

Getting ready

How to do it...

10. Defining Naming Conventions

Machine groups

Machine group filters

Patching templates

Scheduled patching jobs

Scheduled patch status collection

Scheduled patching assessment

Compliance templates

Compliance rule groups

11. Understanding VCM Console

VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook

VMware vRealize Configuration Manager Cookbook

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: July 2016

Production reference: 1290616

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN  978-1-78646-335-7

www.packtpub.com

Credits

About the Author

Abhijeet Shriram Janwalkar completed BTech in electrical engineering. He has 10 years’ experience in IT, starting from desktop support, to server management, to technology lead in the cloud support team, and is now the lead consultant responsible for designing and deploying various VMware and Microsoft technologies. Meanwhile, he has performed technical trainings and was a Microsoft Certified Trainer. He is currently working for AtoS India Pvt Ltd as the Lead Consultant, mostly responsible for monitoring and checking compliance in the cloud deployment team. On the certification front, he has completed VCP-DCP, VCP-Cloud, VCP6-CMA, VCAP-DCA, and VCAP-DCD, and is waiting for the general availability of the VCAP6-DCD exam. He has been working on VCM for almost 3 years now and is responsible for the design, deployment, and maintenance of it in multiple deployments for customers. He is an MCT alumni and has a few other certifications in Microsoft technologies such as MCSE: Private Cloud and MCSA Server 2012, to name a couple. He used to train people on SCCM, SCOM, and Windows OS. He was invited by Microsoft to perform performance-based testing on Windows Server 2008 and then beta test SCCM 2012, which he passed successfully. You can find him at http://abhijeet-janwalkar.blogspot.com or https://in.linkedin.com/in/abhijeet-janwalkar-3640952.

Acknowledgments

First of all, I would like to thank God for giving me wisdom and making sure that I share it with you in the form of this book.

Then, thanks to my parents and my brother and sister, who believed in me no matter what I did. Next, is my friend and mentor Pramod Pawar, who guided me to become a lead consultant and now an author.

Special thanks to the PacktPub team, Riddhi, Divya, Gaurav, and the background editorial team, for believing in my idea and giving me this opportunity.

My reviewer Daniel Langenhan for finding my errors and making sure that we deliver you a better book.

Thanks to all my friends and well-wishers who supported and encouraged me to finish this book.

Now comes the most important one to be thanked, my wife Pooja, for bearing with me and my long nights in front of the laptop to finish this book. For supporting me in all the things I do. Thanks to Aashka, my lovely  daughter, for whom I wrote the whole book. I wrote this book because whenever I used to read any book, I used to start with this page, and I always wished my daughter's name to be here someday. Thanks for coming into my life and making sure that I write this; you are my true inspiration.

About the Reviewer

Daniel Langenhan is a virtualization expert with formidable skills in architecture, design, and implementation for large multi-tier systems. His experience and knowledge of process management, enterprise-level storage, and Linux and Windows operation systems, have made him and his business a highly sought-after international consultancy in the Asia-Pacific and European regions for multinational clientele in the areas of finance, communication, education, and government. Daniel has been working with VMware products since 2002 and is directly associated with VMware since 2008. He has a proven track record of successful integrations of virtualization into different business areas, while minimizing cost and maximizing the reliability and effectiveness of the solution for his clients.

Daniel's expertise and practical approach to VMware has resulted in the publication of the following books:

Instant VMware vCloud Starter, Packt Publishing

VMware View Security Essentials, Packt Publishing

VMware vCloud Director Cookbook, Packt Publishing

VMware vRealize Orchestrator Cookbook, Packt Publishing

VMware vRealize Orchestrator Essentials, Packt Publishing

He has also lent his expertise to many other publishing projects as a technical editor.

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

For support files and downloads related to your book, please visit www.PacktPub.com.

Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at service@packtpub.com for more details.

At www.PacktPub.com, you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks.

https://www2.packtpub.com/books/subscription/packtlib

Do you need instant solutions to your IT questions? PacktLib is Packt's online digital book library. Here, you can search, access, and read Packt's entire library of books.

Why subscribe?

Fully searchable across every book published by Packt

Copy and paste, print, and bookmark content

On demand and accessible via a web browser

Free access for Packt account holders

If you have an account with Packt at www.PacktPub.com, you can use this to access PacktLib today and view 9 entirely free books. Simply use your login credentials for immediate access.

Preface

VMware is the pioneer and leader in SDDC with its various tools; VCM is responsible for policy-driven compliance management and the patching of infrastructure.

VCM helps in maintaining the compliance of infrastructure by automatically collecting data and analyzing it against industry standards such as VMware and Microsoft Hardening Guidelines, CIS Benchmarks, PCI DSS, and FISMA, to name a few. It helps you patch your machines with the latest patches released by OS vendors and automate software provisioning. You can see your compliance score on the vROps console after integrating both of them.

This book provides recipes for installing VCM and then the initial configuration, moving ahead with integration to another VMware tool. After this, it continues with configuring compliance and patching for Linux and Windows machines. We have a chapter that will help you configure VCM in order to deploy software from VCM.

You can use this book as a guide to completely explore all the features of VCM, and in the troubleshooting section, you can take a look at the issues you might face while working on VCM every day.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Installing VCM, discusses the components of vRealize Configuration Manager (VCM), various options to install VCM; including the prerequisites; and ends with fine-tuning the database server used by VCM.

Chapter 2, Configuring  VCM to Manage Your Infrastructure, discusses more about VCM configuration, and we start adding virtual infrastructure elements, installing agents, and configuring discovery.

Chapter 3, Linux Patching, shows you how to install the Software Content Repository (SCR), used to download and distribute patches, then follows all the steps required to configure, and distribute patches to managed Linux/Unix servers.

Chapter 4, Windows Patching, shows you how to configure VCM to synchronize patches with Microsoft servers, check the status of managed Windows machines, and finally install patches on demand or on schedule.

Chapter 5, Software Provisioning for Windows, discusses how VCM can be used to distribute software on managed Windows machines; whether servers or desktops, the process will be the same.

Chapter 6, Compliance Management, teaches you how to import and export compliance configurations, create compliance rules for Windows and Unix/Linux, and perform virtualization.

Chapter 7, Maintenance of VCM, discusses how to upgrade VCM, make changes in Service accounts, upgrade agents after the VCM upgrade, decommission managed machines, and offers some naming conventions to use.

Chapter 8, Integration with vROps and Scheduling, gives us more details of integrating VCM with vROps, and then using the scheduling